


Earth-Shattering

by T009HopeStar



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:15:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29042226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/T009HopeStar/pseuds/T009HopeStar
Summary: What would you do when a random stranger gave you some earth-shattering news that made you see something so obvious that you have no idea how you'd been so oblivious.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 23





	Earth-Shattering

Arriving at school early this morning allowed me to sit and wonder about my latest problem. Nine days ago, something was pointed out to me. At first, I didn’t believe it, after all, how could something so incredibly unthinkable be true? When I got home that night, Tikki and I shared a good laugh at the absurd thought. We went to bed, and the next morning when I woke up, the idea didn’t seem nearly as crazy. I dressed in my usual attire and rushed off to school. There, I started paying attention and looking for signs that the crazy revelation might be real.

Nothing seemed off at first, but with each passing day, it became more and more apparent to me that it was true. What’s more, no one else seemed to notice. All of my classmates saw it every single day and none of them even bothered to bat an eyelash at the absurdity. How had I been so blind? I could barely process it.

Adrien of all people! How could he not know? If I knew, he must see it too, right? How were we both so blind to this before now?

I cursed Claire for pointing it out to me. She was just a random girl I met at the bakery. She’d been in my life less than five minutes and yet she shattered an image that I had of my world and there was no going back. She pointed out something I’d never noticed before, and now I couldn’t unsee it. Every single person that I knew wore the same exact clothes day after day.

It was earth-shattering! How could I not have seen it? It was so obvious.

Even I wasn’t innocent of this crime. I, the aspiring fashion designer, failed to notice this! I somehow had a whole closet full of clothes and yet always wore the same outfit. Every day it was the same thing: my black blazer over my favorite white shirt with the flower design, pink jeans, and my ballet flats. The realization that I literally wore this outfit all of the time sounded preposterous at first. Tikki and I couldn’t believe something so ridiculous, then we started paying attention. That’s when we realized that Claire had been right.

That’s when I decided to end the repetition and tried out a new outfit. I kept it simple, a pink shirt with white polka dots, blue jeans with a few assorted shapes patched on, and pink sneakers. A part of me wondered if anyone would notice my change in attire. After all, if no one noticed that we all wore the same thing every day, would they notice anything I wore? I didn’t have to wait long to find out.

“Whoa, Girl. You’re here early,” Alya teased. Her comment about my usual tardiness got pushed to the back of my mind. I had more important things to worry about. I watched my best friend and held my breath. After she got herself situated in the desk next to me, she looked over and did a double-take.

I sat up a little straighter. This was promising!

“Did you do something different with your hair?”

My shoulders sagged. Was she serious? My hair was the only thing I hadn’t change! I liked my pigtails.

I facepalmed, as she nudged me with her elbow, a sly smile consuming her face. “Is this a new plan to get Adrien to notice you, ‘cause I think it will work.”

I sighed in exasperation. “My hair is exactly the same, Alya.”

“Oh,” was all she managed to say. She scrutinized me with narrowed eyes. “But you did do something different, right?”

“Yes.” I didn’t say more, hoping she would notice it for herself. She couldn’t be this blind.

After a minute or so of studying me, her face contorted in defeat. “Um, new earrings?”

“No!” I snapped and immediately covered my mouth with a squeak. My outburst shocked her, and I quickly apologized. “Sorry, it’s just… how can you not notice? I’m wearing different clothes!”

“Oh.” She blinked several times before looking me up and down. “You look cute, but why are you changing your look?”

“Really?” I asked. Did she really think I was the weird one for wearing something different for a change? Seriously? “You realize we all wear the same thing every day, right?”

Alya arched an eyebrow at me. “As if any of us would do that, Girl.”

I should have expected this. I’d been the same way when Claire told me. It sounded too ridiculous to be true. I needed to get her to think about this. She couldn’t just blow the idea off. “Alya, what did you wear yesterday, and the day before that? When was the last time you saw Nino wear something other than his blue eyeball shirt?”

My best friend fell silent as she thought. I could see from the looks in her eyes that she was seeing the truth. I could practically hear the glass shattering as her view of the world changed. “Oh my God!” she exclaimed before studying the students walking around the courtyard. “No way!”

My mouth formed a thin line as my head bobbed up and down.

She turned back to me. “How did no one notice?” she asked.

I shrugged and waved my hands all over the place. “I don’t know!”

Her eyes darted back and forth as she processed this, then they locked onto me. “Wait, how did you notice?”

“Some random girl at the bakery told me.” I waved my hand in the general direction of the bakery for added emphasis. I could see the reporter in her preparing to bombard me with questions that I didn’t have the answers to, so I preempted them. “I just found out a little over a week ago. All I know is that we’ve been doing it for a very long time.”

Alya looked down at her lap, studying her preferred outfit. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?!”

“I didn’t believe her,” I exclaimed. Who would believe something so bizarre from a total stranger? “How could no one have noticed?”

“I bet it was an akuma,” she said while rubbing her chin. “It’s the only explanation.”

Admittedly, it did sound like something an akuma might do, but it also didn’t make a whole lot of sense. “Why would Hawkmoth create an akuma that makes everyone wear the same clothes every day?” What could he possibly gain from this?

“Why would he give Mr. Ramier the power to control pigeons on multiple occasions?” Alya countered, and it was a fair point. Hawkmoth didn’t always make decisions that made sense. Sometimes the villain could be downright devious, and other times it seemed like he was making things up as he went along. Still, an akuma doing this didn’t pose any danger that would draw Chat Noir and me out for a fight. Mr. Pigeon at least posed something of a threat. Sort of.

As the approach of the first bell drew nearer, the rest of the class filed in and sit at their desks. Now that I’d shared the secret of everyone’s wardrobes with Alya, I could find some humor in the situation. She studied each of our classmates as they entered. Each time, her eyes grew more and more shocked. Had I made the same faces when I first realized. I’d have to ask Tikki later.

After a while, my friend leaned over and whispered in my ear. “What do we do with this information? Do we tell them?”

“What good would it do?”

“Wouldn’t you want to know if it were you?”

Just as I started to answer that yes, I would want to know, Nino strolled in and gave Alya a one-armed hug. “What’s up dudes, what are you talking about?”

Alya and I shared a look, continuing our debate in silence. After a moment, we agreed to hold off on telling him just yet. “Fashion,” I said. Technically the truth.

Alya instantly backed me up. “Yeah, Mari is trying to come up with some new designs and was running a couple of ideas by me.”

“Awesome. I’m sure all of your designs are amazing, Dude.” Nino took his seat in front of Alya. As he did, Adrien entered the room, once again wearing his usual outfit of jeans, a black shirt with multicolored stripes across the chest, and an unbuttoned white collared shirt. He looked amazing, as always, but I wished I could see him in something else in person He was the only one I ever really saw wearing something different, but only in his various ads.

“Even you, Agreste?” Alya said louder than she meant to. Her hands jumped to cover her mouth, but the damage was done. Adrien heard and turned around with a quizzical look on his beautiful face.

He chuckled as he looked between the two of us. “What did I do?” he asked. His green eyes lingered on me longer than they usually did. My cheeks grew warmer the longer his gaze burned into me. Did he notice my new outfit?

He didn’t. At least, he didn’t say anything.

“Even you are looking good today!” Alya lied, then gave me a devious smirk. She leaned in and pretended to whisper conspiratorially. “Marinette thinks she’s having a bad hair day.”

My mouth fell open as I stared at her incredulously. I liked my hair!

Adrien spoke up before I could defend myself. “I think your hair looks great, Marinette.”

I felt like I’d melt. “Thank too. You look nice you.” I groaned and tried again. “Thank you. You look nice too.”

He smiled and fell into conversation with Nino as Alya’s eyes gleamed with pride.

When Chloe arrived, she noticed me out of the corner of her eye and stumbled to a halt. Her left hand cupped her right elbow as she held it up and pointed with her right hand. “There’s something different about you.”

Of all the people to notice, of course, it would be Chloe. For the first time ever in my life, I waited to hear what she had to say.

“You finally learned how to apply make-up!” She gave several little claps before continuing. “It’s about time.”

I scoffed at her. “I know how to apply make-up! That’s not what’s different.”

Chloe shrugged and took her seat.

“But something is different!” Rose chimed in from behind me. She and Juleka both studied me as if I were some piece of art on display. It made me uncomfortable, which only grew worse as all eyes in the room started staring at me. The entire class began bickering about whether or not there was something different about me, but no one seemed capable of noticing my outfit.

Alya and I watched the feverish debate for several minutes before I couldn’t take it anymore. “I’m wearing a new outfit!”

Everyone fell silent, their eyes studying me.

“Statistically, that can’t be it,” Max announced and a chorus of voices agreed with him. I couldn’t believe none of them could tell.

“How do none of you see this? You all wear the same outfit every single day! That’s not normal!”

Chloe scoffed from the front row. “That’s utterly ridiculous!”

“Do you really feel the need to lie to get attention, Marinette?” Lilla commented from the back. I grit my teeth as the liar lectured me about lying.

Unfortunately, the rest of the class echoed her statement to varying degrees.

As always, I could count on my friend. Alya jumped to my aide. “She’s telling the truth! Just look at these pictures.” She held her phone up for everyone to see and scrolled through her pictures from the last year. Every single person wore the same outfit they always did in all of them.

Mrs. Bustier arrived after that, preventing the conversation from continuing even further. A silence fell over the room as everyone readied their notebooks. I hoped they were realizing that I was right. I didn’t want to be an outcast for this, and yet, for the rest of the day, my classmates avoided me. Only, Alya and Nino would talk to me, and no one dared mention the outfit thing again.

When classes ended for the day, Chloe decided to make one more comment as she walked by my desk. “The same clothes every day, as if!”

I groaned and let my head fall to my desk. Why had I stood up and opened my mouth? I should’ve just kept it to myself.

A hand rubbed my back reassuringly. “Hey, you tried, girl. They’ll come around,” Alya said.

“Thanks. You believe me, right?”

“Of course I do, and I’ll be wearing something different tomorrow to prove it. I can’t believe how many options I have in my closet that I’ve never tried before!”

Her excitement gave me a much-needed boost, and it was nice knowing I wasn’t alone in this. It made this whole mess feel less weird. We left school and walked to my house. The whole way, Alya discussed what she’d wear tomorrow. When we arrived, Maman and Papa asked the usual questions about school: How was our day? What did we learn? Those sorts of things. We answered as best we could without mentioning the whole clothing debacle, even they hadn’t noticed my new outfit. After recounting the day to them, Alya headed home and my parents put me in charge of the store while they handled a delivery. I set my backpack behind the counter to stand behind the register. With the store empty, I began planning what I’d wear tomorrow and fell into daydreaming about Adrien and what he might wear, and how good he’d look. The front bell chimed, snapping me out of my visions and I found Adrien standing there with a sheepish grin.

“Hey, Marinette.”

Panic immediately set in. “ADRIEN!” I exclaimed. Why was he here? “How are you doing help? What can I here you?” I stumbled over my words in embarrassing fashion, as usual. All the while, Adrien just stood there, perfectly perfect until I got the words sorted out properly. “I-I mean, what are you doing here? How can I help you?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I, uh, wanted to talk to you about everyone wearing the same clothes every day.”

My heart skipped a beat. “You don’t think I’m making it up, do you?”

“No!’ he exclaimed, waving his hands erratically. We both froze for a moment before he cleared his throat and continued, “I wanted to know how you found out about that. I mean, it seemed like no one wanted to believe you. Even I had a hard time believing it at first, but the more I thought about it….”

I leaned over the counter a little more. “The more you realized it was true?”

“Exactly. Can you forgive me for not believing you from the start?”

I shrugged. “There’s nothing to forgive. I didn't believe it at first either.” I proceeded to tell him what I’d told Alya that morning.

He listened intently, a serious expression on his face. At the end of the story, he rubbed his chin. “You’re sure she wasn’t an akuma?”

I nodded once. “Positive. She looked completely normal, nothing like the crazy outfits they usually wear. Besides, what good would she do as an akuma?”

He hummed for a moment before a car honked outside. He waved at his bodyguard before addressing me again. “I’ve got to go. I’ll see you tomorrow. I liked your outfit by the way.” He turned to leave but hesitated for just a moment at the door. “I wonder what my father would say if he realized.” He chuckled and I thought I would die. With that, he waved goodbye and got into his car. I sighed and held my head in my hands as I watched the vehicle drive away.

The bell chimed once more and in walked Claire, the girl who had changed the way I saw my world. She was still here! I gaped at her as she strode up to the counter with a smile on her face and her eyes shining brightly. “So,” she stated casually, “How’s life?”

“Are you an akuma?” I blurted out. Looking at her again, I highly doubted the fact. Her clothes weren’t of the vibrant, bizarre nature of an akuma. In fact, her outfit looked like something I’d designed once.

“Nope, just someone who wanted to see how you’d react, and someone who loves your parents’ baking.” She reached into her purse and pulled out a wallet. “I’ll take ten of every cookie you’ve got.”

I blinked several times. How could she be so nonchalant about this? A week ago she shared something that shattered how I viewed the world, and here she was as if nothing ever happened. In a daze, I filled the order. I placed each box in a neat stack on the counter. After paying, Claire took one of the macaroons out and offered it to me. “For your purse, with love.”

She said it in such a completely natural tone that I almost accepted it as normal. It took me a moment to understand the implications of her offer. I froze and stared at her in horror. How did she know about Tikki?

She patted my hand that still hovered over the counter with the cookie and offered a reassuring smile. “Relax, Marinette. I’m not going to tell anyone anything.” She removed a DVD case from her purse and slid it across the counter to me. Miraculous Les Aventures de Ladybug et Chat Noir. At first, I thought nothing of it, I’d seen plenty of Ladybug merch from the movie, then she flipped it over and my face was on the back. Not Ladybug’s, but a mask-less, cartoon Marinette. In an instant, I flipped the case over. Why was it my face? I studied the calm blue eyes before me, where had she come from, and where had she gotten this. Were there more?

“Who are you?”

“I’m just someone who has been watching your story unfold since I was very little. I love Ladybug and know everything about her, Chat Noir, and even Le Papillon,” She spoke with so much sincerity in her voice I struggled not to believe her words were anything but truthful. “So tell me,” she continued, “what else do you want to know about your world?”


End file.
